Wednesday, May 14, 2008

There are only a handful of people in my life that I have met that I can have serious discussions about music with. As Thom G has said, most people only view music as background, not as an important strand of your DNA. Thom G is one, Philbert is one, Hal is becomming one. I can remember spending HOURS and HOURS having listening parties with my pal RUMPROAST pouring over old issues of the NME and discussing the merits of new releases. He still is providing me with endless ideas for this blog in addition to introducing me to wonderful new bands. With Philbert and Thom at work it can get a little dangerous. Once the topic of music comes up it has the potential of eating away at the day. I, like these individuals, think of music as a passion. It's something to immerse yourself in, to study and to discuss. It's what marks the important events in my life. I don't remember much about my short tenure at college, but I sure as hell remember the music!

Anyway, during one such discussion Phil brought up the topic of song sequencing. An important aspect of THE ALBUM that I often forget about, it can make or break a recording the same way that a producer can. Do you have any albums in which you think the sequencing could have been improved upon? An opening song you thought would have fit better in the middle or the end? I know I have a few, but it's going to take more thought before I post. Maybe later.

4 comments:

E- thanks for the comments on 4minutesoffame.blogspot.comYour blog is cool to the 9 th power...I own "small change" by Prism and i will fight anyone in the street that calls me a pussy...I have linked both your blogs to mine. throw me a link if you would like

Thanks for the props, Unc! But, when I glanced through some titles nothing jumped out at me as being poorly sequenced. Probablt because we just get used to hearing them the way they are. We should, however, harken back to the day of the LP for our exercise. Aside from providing a natural break in the sequencing (you had to flip the record over) it added a bit more of a challenge as well as an additional opportunity to start off with a bang. Let's assume the idea of sequencing was to showcase the individual tracks while providing a pleasant listening experience over the course of 2 20-minute sides. Like a musical play, you should shoot for a "grabber" at the beginning, followed by a nice ebb and flow of middle tracks ending with a "finale" that would provide a satisfying climax. You know, like sex.

In the 50's and 60's it was fairly common to lead off side one with the "single" or "hit" that the was probably the primary motivation for buying the album in the first place. As the artform progressed, greater attention to details like sequencing bacame important aspects of the production. Now, with CDs or individual downloads the intent of the artist/producer is circumvented. Everything is a "single" as it ends up on "shuffle" anyway.

For the sake of our discussion, I'm going to take one of my favorite albums that I believe benefited from the "flip side" order in its' aoriginal release. Bob Dylan's 1970 classic "New Morning."

Original tracking had the quasi-hit, "If Not For You" and the first cut. No bad, but I get the feeling it was put in the lead-off spot was because of Heorhe Harrison's involvement. Sinve the title track, "New Morning" sits in the 7 slot on the CD, let's move it to track 1. Now, with the album :New Morning" led off side two, which was clever and effective. But we've got CD's now, so move it to 1.

Here's the original alnums's track listing:

Side OneIf Not For YouDay of the LocustsTime Passes SlowlyWent To See The GypsyWinterludeIf Dogs Run Free

Side TwoNew MorningSign On The WindowOne More WeekendThe Man In MeThree AngelsFather Of Night

My CD listing:

New MorningSign On The WindowIf Dogs Run FreeIf Not For YouOne More WeekendTime Passes SlowlyFather Of NightWinterludeThe Man In MeDay Of The LocustsWent To See The GypsyThree Angels

If you have the LP on your iPod, give it a whirl...see what you think.

The lords of popular culture tell us what to wear, what to hear, what to smell, what to taste, who to love and who to hate. They tell us what's in and what's out, what's lost and what's found, who to screw, how to do it, and how to leave gracefully when we're done. None of it is necessarily to our benefit. We just grow more lost and desperate in our own fractured worlds. So much for the Pepsi Generation in the land of the Gap.---by David Pulizzi

Overrated nonsense, or seminal masterpiece?

FEEDJIT Live Traffic Feed

Great Movies About Music Dept.

U.F.O.'S AT THE ZOO, FLAMING LIPS

Musical Snobbery

"A musical snob, guilty of snobbery, is a person who adopts the world-view that some people's musical tastes are inherently inferior to others for any one of a variety of reasons including real or supposed knowledge (how long has one been listening/ collecting music), wealth (the number of albums in one's collection), education, ancestry, etc. Often, the form of snobbery reflects the offending individual's socio-musical background. For example, a common snobbery of the musically adept is the affectation that one's place in the rock snob heirarchy is either the cause or result of superior aural abilities. However, a form of snobbery can be adopted by someone not a part of that group; Pseudo-rock snob is a type of snob. Such a snob imitates the manners, adopts many of the tastes of true rock snobs and attempts to pass themselves off as a true connesseur of great music. It affects their world-view and affects the lifestyle of a social class of people to which he or she aspires, but does not yet belong, and to which he or she may never belong."

The one and only Phil Fountain!!

About Me

MORE Cool Vinyl!

"That's sooooooo SPINAL TAP, man..."

Nigel would be proud!

Best Music Site Ever (other than this one)

I tell ya, if you're anything like me times are tight, and what music I choose to buy has to be a pretty safe bet. Long gone are the days of buying an album because it has a "cool cover" and "looks like something I'd like". Besides, album artwork is too damn small nowadays anyway.Friend recommendations are great, but I've found that if you take it two steps further you can lower your risk of buying another "Focus" album (sorry Mr. Benda!) by at least 50%!First, listen to it in 30 second 'snipits' on Amazon, itunes or whatever media is your preference. If you like it enough, move on to step II and click on the link on the right rail of this blog entitled "ALL MUSIC GUIDE". It contains all the info on this new band and album you would ever need, from bio's (real ones!), to a "usually pretty darn accurate" rating system on their discography, to similiar bands in that bands genre, and much more. Sounds like an ad, right? Well, this site has probably saved me thousands of dollars over the years, so yeah, it is! Check it out!